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Sunday, March 10, 2013

Adventures in U.S. History Week 3

We had another fun week of adventures! We learned about Jamestown, came up with a chant to help us memorize Matthew 1:21, and learned more about air!

Jesus means the Lord saves

We learned last week that the name Jesus means the Lord saves, and this week we learned that if we say we belong to Jesus we should live like Jesus would. I gave Miss M a bracelet from when I was a little girl with the letters WWJD? on it. Little Guy wanted to know: "Why is there a mystery on it?" which is what he calls question marks.

On Tuesday we did an experiment with a cup of water and a piece of cardboard.

We were afraid it wouldn't work, but it did! I queried on Facebook whether it is really air pressure that keeps the cardboard in place and my uncle responded: "In order for the water to come out of the cup, air has to get in. A hole anywhere into the cup would allow air in, which would then cause the system to collapse. But as long as it's sealed, the air pressure from all sides keeps the cardboard in place." Fascinating! And so much fun!

Miss M spends 15 minutes every day with the Book Basket!

Book basket time is occasionally met with some grumbling, but once she delves into the books, she often doesn't want to quit when the timer goes off! I love book basket time because I have 15 minutes to do some housework -- switch the laundry, run the vacuum, or put the dishes away -- or sometimes just cuddle Little Guy who has usually been off playing happily on his own.

Miss M is loving her Tagalog lessons on the computer. She's still a little too shy to use the phrases she's learning when she talks to her grandparents, but she'll get there! She at least overcame her trepidation enough to speak into the microphone and get 100% on one of her lessons!

Screen shot: Rosetta Stone Tagalog lesson

Miss M nearly knocked my socks off as we got started with Spelling Power this week. I knew she was a good speller, advanced for her age. (Keep in mind she's only six and would be in kindergarten now if I had sent her to public school). But I never expected her to test into the program at the sixth grade level! WOW! I'm so thankful that we're homeschooling and can take it all in stride and place her where she needs to be without any unnecessary drama.

Setting up the Cricut and cutting out the letters J-E-S-U-S might have been the highlight of Miss M's week. She had a million-and-one questions about how it all worked. I let her push the buttons and use the tiny spatula to lift the letters from the sticky mat.

Then she grated some peeled crayons and we made a Jesus window poster.

We sprinkled crayon bits between two pieces of waxed paper and arranged the letters in the middle. Then I ironed it all between some blank newsprint and made a pretty melted-crayon picture!

Friday we took our nature walk into the woods, just Miss M and I. Most of the snow has melted, but everything still looks dull and dead -- no signs of spring yet!

We saw some deer again and lots of animal prints! These raccoon prints led right down into a ravine.

Miss M found a bug! She observed it and sketched it, and when we got home she identified it as a Common Green Shield Bug. Then she typed it up and added it to her nature journal!

It was a wonderful week! Next week is going to be a little different schedule for us since we have some activities going on that are atypical. It'll be interesting to see how the interruptions to our status quo affect our lessons.

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